Participate in an EIS on Population Growth

Now underway is an exciting process that anyone can participate in who is concerned about the effects on the environment generated by growth in the United States through immigration.

So read on about how you can participate!

Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR), a nonprofit that educates the public about the impacts of mass migration, is conducting a major new project, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on U.S. immigration policy. Through a detailed and objective analysis of how immigration policy impacts our ecology, PFIR hopes that ultimately the work will influence policy decisions for the better.

Through the Website created for this project, the public can submit comments until Monday, October 1, 2012. The main policy decision that the EIS will be evaluating is the level at which annual immigration should be set by the U.S. Congress. Current legal immigration into the U.S. is approximately 950,000 people per year, while it’s estimated that 300,000 to 400,000 people come to the country illegally annually, although the real number is unknown.

Researchers are interested in which environmental impacts to focus on and alternatives to current policy. Some areas that may merit analysis include how different immigration levels will impact the population of the country in, for instance, 50 or 100 years; how those different levels will impact biodiversity, water and air quality; and what is an ecologically sustainable population. Another possible area to better understand may be the international environmental impacts of U.S. immigration policies.

The EIS on U.S. immigration is a team project, led by PFIR investigators, Philip Cafaro and Leon Kolankiewicz. (Leon also is an advisory board member for CAPS and a frequent contributor.)

Both the PFIR main site and the EIS site have loads of good background information. Or, go directly to the comments form here.

And spread the word! Tweet and post this on your FB page; encourage family, friends and colleagues to participate. This will be an important contribution to the public discussion about the impacts of growth!